CV "Major" Bowes passed away in the early morning hours of October 25, 2012. He was at home with his family after a long struggle with cancer. Major was 93 years old. Major, nicknamed for a radio variety show host from the 1930s, was born in Utica, NY, and spent his childhood in upstate New York. After completing his undergraduate degree at Colgate University, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was part of the first wave of landings in North Africa during World War II. He served in Morocco and then London until the end of the war, leaving the Navy as a lieutenant commander. He vowed during the war that if he made it back, he would find a way to live in the Adirondacks where he had spent every summer at the Bowes Camp on Seventh Lake.

After returning from the war, Major worked at an internship at a hotel in Ft. Lauderdale and went on to attend an executive session at Cornell University's Hotel School. Following that, he arranged to lease Dart's Lake Camp in Big Moose. After two summers at Dart's, Major rode his horse over to meet the owner of Covewood Lodge, a mile beyond Dart's. During that conversation, the owner indicated she was interested in selling the resort, and, with help from his parents, Major purchased the property in 1951. He has been the proprietor at Covewood ever since.

An avid naturalist and environmentalist, Major became one of the first to speak out against the effects of acid rain in the early 1980s. He welcomed a number of prominent reporters and politicians to Covewood, including United States Senator Patrick Moynihan, NBC News' Robert Bazell, and then Senatorial candidate and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, describing to them on a local and personal level what he saw as a severe threat to his beloved Adirondacks and the rest of the Northeast.